Friday, February 25, 2011

Graphite in my lucky Strathmore Sketchbook. It was part of my series dealing with childhood issues... I was scared to death of bees. My dad kept honey bees in the backyard, which would occasionally sting when stepped upon, but the hornets and bumblebees in the shed out back were merciless. The could sting repeatedly and pursue you as you ran.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

He loves his life, and someone keeps bringing him fish. What's the problem? I'm fascinated by those shows on the Discovery or National Geo channels showing morbidly obese folks as a tiny head among a pile of fat rolls, covered with a contour sheet. What gets me wondering is: Who is carting all of that food within their reach?

Saturday, February 12, 2011

In honor of my lovely bride and her years of knitting sweaters for friends, family and commissions. She has her own blog - Atomic Knits. She's been teaching classes through the local Knit Shop in town. I'm a beneficiary of her talents, and can tell you, they're plenty warm.

I encourage you to follow her blog - She's doing some wonderful work and would like to know more folks doing handcrafts.

This montage is of various people wearing sweaters, and her in the middle: knitting the next one. All very quick drawings in my sketchbook, merged into a single photoshop montage.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Here's the cover of the booklet - I shortened the title from Three Sings down to Two. Sensei José Cruz thought I should play upon the famous prison name, as well as the song that runs throughout the piece. I had originally titled it this way, but thought the prison connotation would cause confusion about the institution. I will go with his advise, as well as pushing institutional Green throughout the piece. I had sent a few choice folks the preliminary BLUE version, which was mono-chrome steel blue and black. The addition of the greens added a huge amount of complexity and depth to some of these pages. I also boosted the heck out of the contrast, hiding the fact that I draw with a number 2 Ticonderoga pencil... very gray.

As suggested by my pal Matt Dembicki, I will be pursuing a real publication of this. Not a huge run, but enough to get it dispersed among the masses. I haven't figured on the strike price, but that's TBD.

Thanks to Mike Rhode at ComicsDC for catching a consistency item - I couldn't make a big change with the drawing, so I rephrased the nurse's action to be less of a permanent item, and more of a one-time act.

I've been very honored by you all encouraging this process. I originally thought this would end up in my flat file, never to see light. The piece ended up being downloaded 500 times in three days from my initial arts group emailing for advise. I thank you for taking the time to be my critics and audience.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

"But Could Only Coo"Last page of the mini-zine, "Sing Sing Sing - A One Act Opera". I will be finalizing the print layout and making a short run - keeping it around 25. If I have to make more, I'll be sending it out to a printer.

I chose this for the word Reverse, since it seems that there is no detail in the pigeon, but the focus in on what surrounds his outline. Secondly, our heroine is in a Reversed situation, being caged, while the bird is free.